In todays news...

[Mr. Dazzle]

I'd be anxious too if I were a young(er ) person just joining the world of work these days!

Said it loads of times, but I'm saving in my pension etc. on teh assumption I'll get nothing from the state. I probably will get something, but the figures we have now are totally unsustainable. I also save a load extra in long term for Baby D because I suspect she's gonna be in the shit when she wants to buy a house etc. in ~20 years time.

Most people seem to assume that they can live for today, and if it all goes tits up the state will provide.

That's mostly 'cause it's true

There have been changes though, workplace pensions are now the default for example. Retirement age is creeping up, as is the age at which you can draw from your private pension.

[Taipan]

The tide IS turning. For way to long the UK has overpaid itself in benefits (including Pension Credit and Winter Fuel). The next 5 years will need to be hard, if they aren't, and the bleeding heart brigade get their way, the following decades will be absolutely brutal.

I was taught, and I taught my daughter, to save for the future, and only borrow as much as you can deal with in Plan B. Most people seem to assume that they can live for today, and if it all goes tits up the state will provide.

I kinda get that for todays pensioners. They came from an era when we had industries and many were factory workers working for a modest wage and living in council houses with reasonable rents and in the main, the state pension supported that, at least for the most of the working classes.

But things have changed dramatically and I will always thank Thatcher for encouraging home buying. Incredible to think I was mortgage free in my 50s and will never be beholding to private landlords and their vicious rents. It's why we've made sure our kids get on the property ladder too and focus on private pensions for their retirement, as like Dazzle says, i'm not sure the state pension will be anything much, if at all, in later years..

[Count Steer]

The tide IS turning. For way to long the UK has overpaid itself in benefits (including Pension Credit and Winter Fuel). The next 5 years will need to be hard, if they aren't, and the bleeding heart brigade get their way, the following decades will be absolutely brutal.

I was taught, and I taught my daughter, to save for the future, and only borrow as much as you can deal with in Plan B. Most people seem to assume that they can live for today, and if it all goes tits up the state will provide.

I kinda get that for todays pensioners. They came from an era when we had industries and many were factory workers working for a modest wage and living in council houses with reasonable rents and in the main, the state pension supported that, at least for the most of the working classes.

It wasn't just council houses. There was a relatively healthy rental sector - with rents that actually allowed you to live and save a deposit on your first purchased house. Some countries still have a functioning rental market inc some of the larger European ones. Our economy seems to have been based on driving up property prices and making homes into just investment opportunities.

The genie is out of the bottle now though, it'll take something catastrophic to change things.

[Mr. Dazzle]

S'this little beauty, innit.

In a roundabout sort of way, this is why I save loads of money for Baby D's nominal first house. I've been fortunate with how house prices fell and how the value of my home has grown and therefore allowed me to get better LTV on my mortgage. I can't really repay anyone for that luck, but I can pay it forward to my Daughter.

[Taipan]

The tide IS turning. For way to long the UK has overpaid itself in benefits (including Pension Credit and Winter Fuel). The next 5 years will need to be hard, if they aren't, and the bleeding heart brigade get their way, the following decades will be absolutely brutal.

I was taught, and I taught my daughter, to save for the future, and only borrow as much as you can deal with in Plan B. Most people seem to assume that they can live for today, and if it all goes tits up the state will provide.

I kinda get that for todays pensioners. They came from an era when we had industries and many were factory workers working for a modest wage and living in council houses with reasonable rents and in the main, the state pension supported that, at least for the most of the working classes.

It wasn't just council houses. There was a relatively healthy rental sector - with rents that actually allowed you to live and save a deposit on your first purchased house. Some countries still have a functioning rental market inc some of the larger European ones. Our economy seems to have been based on driving up property prices and making homes into just investment opportunities.

The genie is out of the bottle now though, it'll take something catastrophic to change things.

Absolutely and the building societies and banks were the architects of this. Back when I was first buying, BSs & banks lent 1 or 1.5 times your salary and if there was a second person, .5 of theirs. This just grew and grew to fit the lending needed to drive prices up and up. With all the self cert mortgages back then it didn't take a genius to realise we were pretty much building on sand.

My daughter has just bought a £360k house with her other half and my son a £175k flat on his own. The amount of money they spend on mortgages and household bills is a massively high proportion of their wages compared to back when I was first buying. I really do feel sorry youngsters today when want to try and crack on in life. At least they'll get some rewards from our estate when we go, assuming we haven't had to cash it all in for failing health and private health care...

[Taipan]

More than a little awkward....

https://notrickszone.com/2024/09/10/sat ... ion-trend/

Is it right that TN passed a law to ban all that and they now have clear blue skies?

They did!

Tennessee lawmakers have passed a bill banning the release of airborne chemicals that critics say is inspired by "chemtrails" conspiracy theories.

The bill forbids "intentional injection, release, or dispersion" of chemicals into the air.

It doesn't explicitly mention chemtrails, which conspiracy theorists believe are poisons spread by planes.

Instead it broadly prohibits "affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight".

The Republican-sponsored bill passed along party lines on Monday. If it is signed by Tennessee's governor, Republican Bill Lee, it will go into effect on 1 July.

The bill's backers were spurred on by a government report released last year on solar geoengineering, which is the idea of cooling the planet by reflecting sunlight back into space. The White House, though, has said that there are no plans "to establish a comprehensive research programme focused on solar radiation modification."

Several witnesses who testified before the Tennessee legislature cited debunked conspiracy theories or speculated about secret government geoengineering programmes, according to Scott Banbury, conservation director of the state's branch of the Sierra Club, an environmental organisation.

Their claims were troubling, he said.

"As a serious environmental organisation, if what was in the bill was actually going on we would be calling for a stop to it," he said. "It's not happening."

Geoengineering, weather modification and 'chemtrails'
The legislation focuses on geoengineering, a very broad category which includes mostly theoretical large-scale action to mitigate climate change.

Geoengineering is controversial even among legitimate climate scientists, because of uncertainty around its usefulness and the possibility of unintended outcomes.

Planet-wide climate engineering is distinct from more routine weather modification, such as cloud seeding, which increases rainfall over specific areas and is used in several US states.

"Chemtrails", meanwhile, is a separate, pseudoscientific idea that governments or corporations are spraying chemicals from planes to kill, control or poison people.

Conspiracy theorists point to white plumes of water vapour trailing behind passenger aeroplanes, commonly called contrails, as proof of sinister and secret plots, but lack evidence for their claims.

The most common claim of proof is "simply that aircraft contrails look 'different', without any comparative analysis," according to a report from a Harvard geoengineering group.

"This as convincing as saying that alien beings walk among us in disguise as people because some people act very strangely," it said.

In recent decades speculation about chemtrails has risen as the number of airline flights - and thus the number of contrails - has surged.

In the debate over the Tennessee bill, lawmakers and witnesses cited a range of both reliable and debunked facts about geoengineering and weather modification, and at least one witness said she believed the White House was engaged in climate experiments but could not provide definitive proof.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68716894

[Yorick]

I'm all for equality and live and let live. But this is bonkers. A bloke in charge of women's race centre.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2edeyzz0xmo

[Buckaroo]

I'm all for equality and live and let live. But this is bonkers. A bloke in charge of women's race centre.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2edeyzz0xmo

Typical bloke.....makes decisions with her dick, not brains. Add sex to the discussion and that's it, game over.

[Mussels]

You'd think somewhere with the country's top plod gathered together would be safe.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdx6xvvn25xo

Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson had her purse stolen from the hotel where she gave a speech at a conference for senior police officers on Tuesday.

[Saga Lout]

You'd think somewhere with the country's top plod gathered together would be safe.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdx6xvvn25xo

Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson had her purse stolen from the hotel where she gave a speech at a conference for senior police officers on Tuesday.

But they'd checked everybody's social media accounts for hate crimes.

[Mr. Dazzle]

You'd think somewhere with the country's top plod gathered together would be safe.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdx6xvvn25xo

Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson had her purse stolen from the hotel where she gave a speech at a conference for senior police officers on Tuesday.

Perfect double bluff! They'd never expect anyone to be brazen enough so they let their gaurd down.

or perhaps more likely the crim didn't even realise the conference was going on

[Yambo]

You'd think somewhere with the country's top plod gathered together would be safe.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdx6xvvn25xo

Labour's mission "is to restore respect for the rule of law on British streets, including restoring respect for the police, which has sadly been eroded over many years," she said.

Respect for the police has been eroded partly because of previous governments policies but also because the police have been politicised and because they'd rather chase people for upsetting snowflakes on social media than going out and catching real criminals.

I don't think that Starmers first few weeks in No 10 has done very much to change the public's perception.

[Pirahna]

More Lucy Letby news. Seems concerns were raised about a doctor but the records of doctors shifts were deleted.

"Leaked documents reveal that neonatal unit manager Eirian Powell and lead consultant Dr Stephen Brearey created a staffing chart for unexpected deaths and collapses. The chart included both nurses and doctors on duty during incidents. However, Powell was alarmed to discover that when the chart reached Alison Kelly, executive director of nursing, the column listing doctors had been deleted"

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/staf ... 82133.html

[Mussels]

BBC states the most obvious thing I've seen in ages.

The BBC’s director general Tim Davie said he can’t see Huw Edwards working at the corporation again.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2477kp0epo

[mangocrazy]

BBC states the most obvious thing I've seen in ages.

The BBC’s director general Tim Davie said he can’t see Huw Edwards working at the corporation again.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2477kp0epo

No shit, Sherlock? Straight from the department of the bleedin' obvious...

[MingtheMerciless]

Just scrap the bloody things and move onto something more reliable and safer to fly........
https://theaviationist.com/2024/09/19/a ... v-22-fire/

[gremlin]

The Daily Star's new nickname for Sir Kier Starmer:

Free Gear Kier.

[gremlin]

BBC News - Notting Hill Carnival is 'poorly run' - Met chief
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c77xjv11lm8o


So as well as getting a bit stabby (mind you, only two murders this year, so good work Carnival Ltd), looks like the Met are worrying about it getting a bit crushy as well.

Still, looks like the organisers and the Met are working in perfect harmony, so roll on next year.

[Taipan]

Starmer is certainly gaining some great and just monikers! He seems to be out to top every criticism he's ever made at the Tories! I don't think i've ever seen such blatant hypocrisy!

[Mussels]

Starmer is certainly gaining some great and just monikers! He seems to be out to top every criticism he's ever made at the Tories! I don't think i've ever seen such blatant hypocrisy!

Giving and taking bribes seems so natural to him that he can't stop, makes me wonder about the CPS and how they decide which celebrities to ignore.